New York : Wiley, c1980.

Lichens are one of several forest health indicators sampled every year for a subset of plots on the permanent grid established by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service. This report reviews analysis procedures for standard FIA lichen indicator data. Analyses of lichen data contribute to state, regional, and national reports that evaluate spatial pattern and temporal trends in forest biodiversity, air quality, and climate. Data collection and management follow standard national protocols. A lichen species richness index (the number of species per FIA plot) is available for all areas soon after data collection. Air quality and climate indexes (for defined regional gradients and based on lichen species composition at plots) are developed from an FIA lichen gradient model. Critical steps in standard data analysis include screening plots to exclude biased data, selection of appropriate populations, then analysis, presentation, and interpretation of data.

This Handbook, first published in 2005, provides standard procedures for planning and conducting a survey of any species or habitat and for evaluating the data.

This annotated bibliography documents literature addressing the design and implementation of vegetation monitoring. It provides resources managers, ecologists, and scientists access to the great volume of literature addressing many aspects of vegetation monitoring: planning and objective setting, choosing vegetation attributes to measure, sampling design, sampling methods, statistical and graphical analysis, and communication of results. Over half of the 1400 references have been annotated. Keywords pertaining to the type of monitoring or method are included with each bibliographic entry. Keyword index.